People: Joe, Mike, Jason, Karen, Greddy, Stano

First, a(nother) huge thanks to Mike and Joe, from RPI, who led us on trips this past Saturday and Sunday, May 3 and 4.

May 3 those of us who had practiced vertical techniques went to Bensons cave. Wow, it was huge and with LOTS of formations. A little ways into the cave, there were soda straws ALL over the place. And there were those little formations that curl around, being small enough to have been influenced more by the wind than by gravity.

May 4 Joe agreed to lead us again, and we visited the recently-reopened "triple crown" of Selleck's, 575, and Levy's caves. (The caves are now opened because they have been recently acquired by the NCC, is my understanding.) Selleck's I didn't go i, because i had to tool. 575 was neat-oh, a big crevasse with sharp walls. Levy's seems to have closed up again but the entrance was cool. I squirmed down a little tube to a waterfall ... which was actually my first experience with surface water -- WARM water in a cave. And there were LOTS of earthworms, especially down the tube toward the waterfall. The mud everywhere in the entrance had a GREAT consistency -- much more like dirt and less slimy than usual cave mud.

We poked around trying to figure out where one would dig to find the entrance, but decided the thing to do was to report back to those who opened it last year.

... by karen

Mon, May 5 15:16:49 2003 krobinso